BEAVERTON, Ore. — The therapeutic use of psychedelic mushrooms has been legal for more than year in Oregon, and places where people can go and try it continue to pop up. The latest service center to open is Brain Brew PDX in the Beaverton area.
Ben Kramer works as the assistant manager and facilitator at the Washington County service center. He’s a veteran with a heart to help other vets. He knows what it’s like to have to adapt after serving in the military.
“I think the hardest part is transitioning out of the military and just try to be a normal person again. That’s when it really got difficult,” said Kramer.
Kramer is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served from 2009 to 2014. After he left the military, he became a firefighter with Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue from 2015 until December 2022.
He said the U.S. military prepared him for combat, but it did not adequately prepare him for everyday life back in Beaverton.
“Coming back to the town I was born and raised in and couldn't sleep at all, and I slept like a baby in Afghanistan,” Kramer said.
Like many veterans, he self-medicated to cope. Data from the Department of Veterans Affairs show more than 20% of veterans with PTSD also abuse drugs and/or alcohol.
And while the most recent data indicate suicide numbers among military members and their families dipped slightly in 2022, the VA found in Oregon, the suicide rate for veterans in 2021 was "significantly higher" than the national suicide rates for both veterans and the general population.
In Washington, veterans’ suicide rate was also “significantly higher” than the national suicide rate for the general population.
“When I started hearing about psilocybin, it was actually from a friend who had attempted suicide, and he found psilocybin and it changed him completely,” said Kramer.
He said he’s personally experienced the life-changing effects of psychedelic mushrooms. Kramer said psilocybin helped him see the world through a new lens.
Medical research out of Johns Hopkins found magic mushrooms can help treat depression. More studies need to be done, but researchers also say psychedelics may help with substance abuse too.
Helping other vets meant so much to Kramer that he quit firefighting, a profession he loved, to work at Brain Brew PDX, a new psilocybin service center in Washington County. Facilitators are meant to help monitor, oversee clients, and keep a safe environment for people who choose to take magic mushrooms.
“I do believe that there is a huge, huge crisis, catastrophe in the mental health space,” said Mary Nielsen, co-owner of Brain Brew.
At Brain Brew, trained facilitators work as contractors, monitoring people who've taken psilocybin.
She said safety is built into the experience. Before taking magic mushrooms, among other things, people need to have an orientation session, they'll need a ride home and facilitators have to follow up with them. There are also cameras monitoring the building — although the sessions themselves are not monitored — and facilitators have to undergo background checks.
“The facilitator license is $2,000 a year. The service center license is $10,000 a year. The startup costs are quite high,” said Nielsen.
The experience isn't cheap. After everything's said and done, taking psilocybin may cost someone a couple thousand dollars, depending on their choices regarding facility, facilitator, and how long their experience lasts.
But over time, Nielsen anticipates prices will fall, making psilocybin more accessible to more people and veterans.
“It's saved lives. And I'm not trying to sound dramatic, but it's saved a few of my friends’ lives,” Kramer said.
Kramer got his facilitator's license paid for thanks to a local nonprofit called Uphold Our Troops.
“What Uphold Our Troops is really designed for is really to provide financial resources and scholarships to get training to develop a new career in psilocybin journeys for patients,” explained John Richardson, president of Uphold Our Troops.
Richardson is a veteran himself. He said veterans are an underserved community and he believes psilocybin could be helpful to many vets.
“The research coming out on psilocybin is showing very big improvements with veterans for PTSD, any sort of mental health issue; everything from addiction to anxiety, depression and suicide,” Richardson said.
He said the organization has allowed Kramer and other disabled veterans to get scholarships to get the training to become facilitators. They’re looking for community partners to provide more scholarship money to support more veterans.
There are other organizations focused on helping veterans through the use of psychedelics. Heroic Hearts Project is another nonprofit based out of Florida that helps veterans with PTSD access psychedelic programs outside of the United States. Through the Heroic Hearts Project, veterans can be sent to places like Peru, Mexico or Jamaica on retreats where they can use ayahuasca or psilocybin.
Kramer said he hopes to develop a pilot program where veterans can come to facilities in Oregon through the Heroic Hearts Project to experience psilocybin.
“There’s a lot of people who need this help now and I think it would be amazing to heal our veterans here,” said Kramer.
If you or a loved one are going through a difficult time, call the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline anytime to talk to someone. The person on the other end can provide support and connect you to resources.